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LookSmart & Zeal Directories

LookSmart

LookSmart is
really not so much a directory anymore and is more of a pay per click
search engine.

LookSmart was considered one of the most valuable directory on the
web. To promote the growth of their directory while remaining economically
healthy LookSmart decided to split their directory submissions into
two categories. The first LookSmart category is their Looklinstings.
LookSmart allows customers to pay per click to get your site listed
as a sponsored result for searches. The second LookSmart category is
their non commercial category, which allows you to submit non commercial
sites for free through Zeal. LookSmart does not generate a considerable
amount of traffic within itself, but generates a large share of traffic
thanks to other portals using the LookSmart directory to aid search
results.

LookSmart Looklistings

LookSmart Looklistings are a good idea for small businesses that have
a good profit margin and unique items to sell. The initial account setup
fee is $20, which is usable in credits for cost per click advertising
similar to Overture and Google AdWords. Advertisers pay for placement
in a keyword auction.

Personal LookSmart Experience

I tried using LookSmart on a smallish campaign at the beginning of
November 2004. My LookSmart campaign experienced a 95% bounce
rate and was sending me over twice as much traffic as Overture was.

Please note that Overture has a much larger distribution
network than LookSmart does so the volume of traffic and bounce rate
really indicates how low quality the LookSmart traffic was.

TALK ABOUT WASTING MONEY ON LOW QUALITY TRAFFIC :(

*Bounce rate is when visitors click
to your site and then leave without viewing any pages other than the
landing page. My LookSmart bounce rate made me feel rather stupic

The recent move to bidded click through prices may help LookSmart
gain additional distribution, but the loss of MSN (~2/3 of their
distribution) hurt their pull power.

Zeal

Zeal
is in a sense a back door into the LookSmart directory. Non commercial
sites can list pages in the Zeal directory, but even if you are a business
you should still be able to submit pages of a well developed site into
Zeal. Any well developed site should have some value added service which
is provided free to the end user. These information pages which make
a great addition to your site can find their way into the Zeal directory,
which in turn is added to the LookSmart directory. To submit sites to
Zeal, you have to study for and take a quick 20 question exam. Some
people find it hard to pass and others easy. If after a few attempts
you can not pass the quiz, send me your
Zeal listing information and I will submit it for you if it is a
valuable non commercial resource.

LookSmart Philosophy

LookSmart believes in the power in numbers idea. This
could best be seen by realizing that many of their directory listings
come from Zeal by associate editors who are not even employed by LookSmart.
Also, LookSmart has purchased a distributed computing program, Grub,which
it aims to use distributed computing to provide the webs most fresh
and relevant search results. I of course had to see the Grub program
so I downloaded it. The worm is interesting, as is the screen saver.

LookSmart has considered the 250,000 link barrier a
significant achievement by the Zeal directory. Using it's simple model
the Zeal directory has became one of the fastest growing web directories.

Future Prospects for LookSmart

LookSmart lost Microsoft as a partner (about 2/3 of their revenue)
at the beginning of 2004. LookSmart has done little to advertise the
Wisenut
search engine, which will need to become more popular for LookSmart
to pay for its cost. LookSmart has began to use Wisenut (versus Inktomi)
to back up its web listings. In addition, it is important to note that
Yahoo's acquisition of AltaVista and AllTheWeb (via Overture) has left
LookSmart with something to be desired. The LookSmart revenue model
may soon go south if they can not start generating more of their own
traffic. It would make great sense for LookSmart to promote its own
products within the Zeal community more, but I have not really noticed
any significant cross promotion. The recent change in pricing to a keyword
auction model was extremely smart for the future success of LookSmart.

For them to be really successful they should make the directory free
for all listings and just sell the ads...Then webmasters would at least
give them possitive word of mouth advertising at least. They need help
from somewhere.